Sunday, May 27, 2018

news again-dum May 2018


Masha Gessen in The New Yorker explains why taking children from their parents is a form of terrorism.
An investigation as to why this woman was killed is reported to have begun.
Reports of US ICE Border Patrol units separating children from parents and then losing track of thousands of them, and the shock and outrage of this has spread across the internet. The ACLU is leading the cry on national venues.
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We have to admit, this is historic. Korea for Koreans? Can we hope for peace? What could that be like?
In oblique quick-takes, this also caught my eye.

American letters regrettably have lost a couple of great figures recently.

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Friday, May 25, 2018

news May 2018

There are disasters and then there are disasters.
Ebola threatens to spread in Democratic Republic of Congo.
Student protests turned into a nationwide struggle as the public and students in particular demand sensible action on gun control.

There's still much more to talk about.
Teachers all over the country have gone on strike as well sometimes picking up only somewhat better conditions.
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Congrss has made it still even easier for banks to make money.
Good accountants should unite over this!
There was a string of resignations by Chief Officers of big corporations who had come into contact with Michael Cohen who has long been known in the Trump World as Donald's 'fixer'.
Some people think other things were more important?
_______________________________________________________ Here's a nice photo of Monet in his garden.
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Thursday, May 24, 2018

Friar Savonarola Hanged and Burnt By Order of Republic of Florence

There were three friars condemned to death and whose sentences were carried out in 1498 in the Piazza Signoria facing the Palace. Luca Landucci relates the proceedings:
"The sacrifice of the three friars was carried out on Wednesday morning, May 23. They were brought out of the palace and made to mount the scaffolding over the platform where the eight, the Colleges, the papal envoy, the General [of the Dominican Order], many canons, priests, and friars of various orders, and Bishop Paganotti, who was responsible for performing the degradation (defrocking) of the three friars, were assembled. The ceremony was performed there, on the ringhiera. ... None of them said anything, which caused great surprise, for everyone was hoping to see signs proving that what fra Girolamo previously told people was the truth. This was especially so for the righteous people who hoped that God would be glorified, righteous living would begin, the Church renewed, and the infidel converted. So they were not without bitterness and no one made any effort to offer excuses. Many lost their faith." [pp. 295]
Their robes were taken from them one by one as the sentences of degradation were read out and friar Savonarola declared a heretic and schismatic and condemned to the flames. Their heads and backs were shaved and then turned over to the Eight who declared they would be hanged and then burned. First, was frate Silvestro whose rope was not tight and took some time to die repeating 'Gesu' again and again. Next, was frate Domenico da Pascia, and then frate Giromlamo Savonarola who said little. When they were dead, the scaffolding was pushed away from the platform, ringed with gunpowder and fuel for the fire and set ablaze. When all the remains were consumed by the fire all the bits were put in a wagon and carted to the Arno, near the Ponte Vecchio, and dumped in the river. Even so, some tried to gather the ashes, and secretly, for fear of reprisals.

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quote from Donald Weinstein: Savonarola: the rise and fall of a renaissance prophet , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011
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Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Third Letter of Hernán Cortés Sent May 15, 1522

Three years after first arriving in Mexico, Cortés was sending another letter detailing the taking of Motecuzoma and his City, and following events, back to Emperor Charles V in Spain.  Other letters were sent along with those going back and it would take another six months before they could return there and find response. This was another example of how the physical distances in their world created great temporal delays in the reception of news, which often, in turn, created disastrous effects of unintended consequences.

It is in this letter that Cortés asks his 'Most High And Powerful Prince' for an encomienda system to be set up in Mexico. The request was 'ill-received' at  the court, according to Anthony Pagden who, in the last century, offers another point of view, as related by Bernal Diaz. But it's noted that these letters of Hernán Cortés remain at the imperial library unlike the others. Cortés himself seems to have made sure to  propogate them with instructions for his father to publish the letters. In the age of spreading print presses certainly, also, may have helped in establishing their longevity. These too would later be famously banned by the Crown.

In any event, Cortés had his reasons for writing and sending them, as he remained in 'New Spain' contiuing to claim his own sovereignty there by ungranted permission of the emperor. A year later, June 1523, Charles would send back explicit instruction for Cortés or anyone else not to set up things in an encomienda system and that there were Catholic reasons for this. Cortés would continue to complain and in time, brought to trial over a number of suits. He would establish his own encomienda system anyway.

Anthony Pagden in his edition tells us in a note [letter 3, n. 99] comparing this letter with the others sent (and that are no longer extant but summarized elsewhere) that Bernal Diaz might explain how Cortés and his men actually felt about the business end of things.
"And we all spoke of the many good and loyal services which Cortés and all the conquistadores had performed ... and we besought His Majesty to send us bishops and clerics from every order that were of good life and sound doctrine ... and we besought Him as one, that He grant the government of this New Spain to Cortés ... And that all the official posts such as treasurer, ... notary public and the command of fortresses, should not be granted to others but remain with us. We also besought him not to send us lawyers because by coming to this land they would put it in turmoil with their books and there would be lawsuits and contentions." [ch. 159]
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quoted footnote 99, p 499, from The Third Letter from Hernán  Cortés: Letters From Mexico, translated, edited and with a new intro by Anthony Pagden, as a Yale Nota Bene book, Yale University Press, USA 2001


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